The present invention relates generally to skid steer loaders and front end loaders, and more particularly relates to ground preparation attachments for such loaders.
Skid steer loaders and front end loaders are commonly used vehicles for many industrial, agricultural, and landscaping operations. There are a variety of companies that manufacture and sell such loaders. Skid steer loaders and front end loaders both typically have two laterally spaced loader arms mounted on the vehicle that swing upwardly and downwardly. When the arms are down, their forward ends extend downwardly in front of the vehicle. A mounting plate is supported on the forward ends of the loader arms. A mounting structure is typically attached to the plate and in turn supports and facilitates further attachments. A number of attachments can thus be coupled to the ends of the loader arms to make the loaders applicable to many different types of applications. For example, a bucket is commonly provided for ground preparation activities such as excavating, dumping, surface digging, leveling, and transporting. Similarly, the loaders can be adapted through various attachments to act as a forklift, back hoe, ground preparator, and the like.
One such attachment is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,413,181, where the attachment can be used for tasks such as grading or scarifying. The device includes several surface engaging members, including a mounting saddle and a rake blade. The rake blade is mounted to a forward support member which in turn is connected to the mounting saddle by a pair of spaced side support members. The mounting saddle can be used to push and level soil, and mounts to the mounting plate fixed to the skid steer loader arms. While this attachment permits grading and scarifying, it does not support excavating, dumping, or transporting as buckets do. This type of product has also not met with much commercial success because it requires the purchase of a new implement which is often cost prohibitive.
Buckets have also been developed where the bucket includes teeth that are typically made from forged bars of steel and typically welded to the bucket, such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,317,299. The teeth are helpful in breaking up hard soil, clay or rock when digging and excavating. However, buckets with permanent teeth are not always practical. Some tasks are preferably completed without the teeth.
Various devices have attempted to utilize individual teeth assemblies for attachment to a bucket. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,729,180 discloses an attachment to a bucket that includes teeth mounting posts spaced intermittently along the bucket for receiving individual attachable teeth. While this type of device permits use of the bucket without teeth, it too has drawbacks. One is that the attachment of the individual teeth to existing buckets can be rather complicated and require numerous parts for proper mounting. Often, a specialized bracket is required to attach the individual teeth to the bucket.
In light of the above, a general object of the present invention is to provide a lawn preparation attachment that is more practical and economical than the prior art.
In that regard, it is also an object according to one aspect of the present invention to provide a single rake attachment that can be affixed to a variety of different bucket attachments from different manufacturers.
It is a further object of the present invention to accomplish these objectives without being cost prohibitive.
In view of these and other objects of the invention, the present invention is directed towards a rake attachment for attachment to a bucket and a bucket implement incorporating the same. The rake attachment can quickly and easily be installed directly on a bucket for a loader. The rake attachment is durable and easily converts the bucket to a rake type lawn preparation tool. The bucket with a rake attachment provides a lawn preparation implement and is very inexpensive in comparison to other comparable prior art lawn preparation attachments.
The rake attachment generally includes an elongate plate having teeth projecting along a longitudinal edge of the plate. The plate includes a plurality of mounting holes to facilitate mounting the rake attachment to a bucket. Thus, the rake attachment generally has a length substantially corresponding with the width of the bucket to which it is to be affixed. A plurality of nuts and bolts may be used to secure the rake attachment to the bucket via the aligned apertures and holes in the bucket and the rake attachment.
It is a feature of the present invention that the rake attachment has universal mounting holes to facilitate attachment to a variety of buckets from different commercial manufacturers. The holes are spaced such that they form sets of hole combinations, each set corresponding with preexisting and predetermined holes built into bucket attachments for skid steer loaders. Thus, the rake attachment may be designed to be capable of attaching to numerous buckets from different manufacturers.